Structured and unstructured abstracts in journal articles: a review.

: Abstracts in journals are important paragraphs in review or original articles, which help one to decide if such articles are worth reading. The layout and the content of abstracts have undergone tremendous changes over the years from traditional, unstructured to structured, informative format. Many journal editors abroad are moving fast with time in the adoption of the innovation, allowing only articles with structured abstracts to appear in their journals. Journals in Africa especially in Nigeria are lagging behind in this respect. This review article examines the relative advantage of structured abstracts over unstructured abstracts as documented by various reports on the subject and makes a recommendation for structuring abstracts in articles appearing in Nigerian Journals.